As a general rule one should beware films that are autobiographical works created by a writer/director. The slo-mo's added for emotional impact, the usual dinner-table drama, the shots of the still natural landscape surrounding the intra-family turmoil. Done. To. Death. That said, there's no reason that something that's not all that new or inventive can't also have its entertaining moments, and so it is with this film which the writer/director (the actor Richard E. Grant) based on his youth in Swaziland. On the whole, I probably wouldn've give it more than a "6". It's not bad. But it's not wow-inducing either. It's perfectly fine, and if you are in the mood to watch the family drama surrounding a teen in the waning days of the Empire in Swaziland ...
And hey, it has one big thing going for it, and that's some great acting. The young man at the center of the action (who played Marcus in the wonderful About a Boy) is fine, but the people who really stand out are some of the women around him (I have little positive to say about Gabriel Byrne's hammy acting as his dangerously drunken father). Emily Watson and Julie Walters are both marvelous, wonderful, you really can't say enough good things about them. They are terrific. So if you are fans of either or both of them (and how can you not be?) you'll certainly enjoy at least parts of this movie.
Posted by armand at December 7, 2006 12:37 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies